Sunday, September 4, 2016

See those orange streamers hanging in front of my car? They are tied to downed power lines. Obviously I had to back up and turn my car around.

Downed tree blocking the road.

I took this picture through my windshield. More downed power lines.

Another tree down on more power lines.

This tree fell on power lines and snapped the power pole next to it in two.

The decapitated power pole. The top part is hanging from power lines.

Tree on a house.

There is a house under this tree in the left side of the picture.

This house belongs to one of my neighbors a few doors down on my street.

Utility crews working on more downed power lines.

Hurricane Hermine blew through Tallahassee late Thursday night and early Friday morning and I'm happy to say I'm fine and so is my house. I was without power for about 36 hours, but I feel lucky because there are still residents without power today. I took these pictures when I went out on Friday and yesterday. Driving was a little scary because of all the downed power lines and most of the traffic lights were not working. The law says to treat intersections without a working traffic light as if it is a 4-way stop. Most drivers are very considerate, but it gets a little tricky at intersections on a six lane road. I've been trying to stay home until things get a little better.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

The main branch of the LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library is located downtown. I used to be a regular visitor to this building until a new branch library opened a few years ago near my house. The library is named for LeRoy Collins, who served as Florida's 33rd governor from 1955-1961. Governor Collins was born in Tallahassee and resided here for most of his life. The sculpture shown in the first picture is a memorial to a beautiful old live oak tree that once stood in that same spot in front of the library. You can see part of the old tree in a previous post on my blog here. The tree was past its life span (it was determined that it was probably a sapling in the 1850's) and was slowing rotting. A potential danger to visitors and cars, the tree was taken down. John Birch, a master tree carver, created this beautiful sculpture by applying a dark stain to the trunk and used wood from the branches to create the characters. You can see a boy lounging in one of the branches reading a book, a father peeking out of the hole in the tree, and a girl wearing a hard hat holding the blueprints for her tree fort in her hand. You can also see several books stored on a shelf in the trunk of the tree.

By the way, my neck of the woods is under a hurricane warning today and tonight, so if I don't comment on your blogs, it's probably because my power is out. Schools have been closed, so the local kids are getting a 5 day storm-cation (since Monday is the Labor Day holiday). I am about 40 miles from the coast, so storm surge is not an issue, but there will be a lot of rain and wind with possible flash flooding and tornadoes. I'm glad I had all those big trees in my yard taken down a couple of years ago!

It is Theme Day again in the City Daily Photo community and this month the theme is Library. Be sure to visit the CDP Theme Day Gallery to see how other participants have interpreted the theme.